She Treads Softly: Fifty Fifty

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Fifty Fifty

Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh
6/3/25 (originally 9/3/20); 384 pages
Atria Books
Eddie Flynn #5

Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh is a very highly recommended legal thriller. Atria Books has made a wise choice to re-releasing this excellent series in paperback. (Fifty Fifty was originally published on 9/3/20.) Even though this is the fifth book in the Eddie Flynn series it can definitely be enjoyed as a standalone novel.

Eddie Flynn is a streetwise ex con-artist who is now a defense attorney. A contact at the police station calls him to let him know that he needs to get to the station now. When he arrives the station is pack with lawyers trying to represent either of the potential clients, sisters Alexandra and Sofia Avellino. They are both charged in the murder of their father, Frank Avellino, former NYC mayor who is worth an estimated 50 million dollars. The sisters both called 911 almost simultaneously, blaming the other for their father's murder. One or both of them is a killer.

Eddie ends up representing Sophia with assistance from ex-FBI agent Harper and retired judge Harry Ford. Alexandra is represented by new lawyer, Kate Brooks, who took over the case out from under her former firm, Levy, Bernard and Groff. Kate is assisted by her friend ex-NYPD friend Melissa Bloch. The prosecutor, Dreyer, plans to try the sisters together.

Fifty Fifty is exceptionally well-written, expertly plotted, intelligent, twisty, and wildly entertaining legal thriller! A nail-biting warning may be in order too, as the tension remains high throughout and the pace is lightning fast. The narrative is presented in five parts and told through the alternating point-of-view of Eddie, Kate, and "She," one of the sisters who is obviously a killer. You won't know the truth until the very end, which will shock you.

This one is a real page turner as it it impossible to predict what is going to happen next. It is a pleasure to watch Eddie and the team work and this is the book where Kate and Bloch are introduce into the series. All of the characters in the series are written as unique, realistic individuals with strengths and weaknesses.

Fifty Fifty is a perfect choice for those who enjoy legal thrillers. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.